As election nears, VEC warns about disinformation

THE Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) has launched an online misinformation register to help voters sort fact from fiction as the state election approaches.

There are just over two months until the November 26 poll, and Victorian Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately said voters would have noticed the increasing number of political parties seeking registration, candidates announcing intentions to run and campaign policies and platforms being promoted as a result.

He said Victorians were also likely to see “a variety of electoral-related misinformation and disinformation campaigns” in the weeks leading up to November 26.

Mr Gately defined misinformation as when people “just get it wrong, which could be for a variety of reasons, including by accident”, while disinformation was “when the facts are deliberately misrepresented”.

“I will be taking steps to proactively combat misinformation and disinformation and making it easier for the public to sort fact from fiction this state election.

“The VEC will be increasing public awareness of common electoral myths via our new online misinformation register.”

Mr Gately urged Victorians to be more cautious about sharing what might be misinformation or disinformation relating to this election.

“Firstly, understand who is distributing or sharing the material – is it coming from a reliable source? Is the information current? Things change between elections, including some parts of electoral law,” he said.

“Second, check to see if the electoral campaign material is authorised. To protect the integrity of elections and discourage deliberate, anonymous attempts to affect the way people vote, laws are in place to ensure that

whoever publishes electoral campaign material must authorise it. This means that the person who publishes the material must add their name and address to it.

“Anyone can publish electoral campaign material and by authorising it, has complied with the law. This is not an attempt to silence anyone or dissuade free speech, but it’s my responsibility as the state’s independent election umpire to ensure transparency about the source of the material.

“‘Victorians have the right to be able to decide for themselves how much to trust the information put before them this election.”

He said the VEC had recently published updated guidance to make it clear what was expected when authorising electoral campaign material.

“With digital and social media playing an increasingly important role in election campaigning, examples are also provided to assist in identifying what is or isn’t considered electoral campaign material on social media.

“If you are unsure of content about the election process that you have heard, read or seen, check the authorisation statement and then check our website as the source of truth.

“However, it’s important to understand that we are not the arbiter of truth in political advertising.”

For more information on election material authorisation, head to vec.vic.gov.au/candidates-and-parties/become-a-state-election-candidate/authorisation.

For the misinformation register, head to vec.vic.gov.au/voting/2022-state-election/sorting-fact-from-fiction